Men's Swimming & Diving Headline

The University of Florida men’s swimming and diving team
collected 27 All-American honors and finished 8th in the field with 157 points
to closeout the 2011-12 season. The eighth-place finish marks the 12th
consecutive time in head Coach Gregg Troy’s 14-year helm of the Gators’
swimming and diving program

“We’re a little disappointed – you always are when you don’t
take the top-spot – but that can only go to one team,” said Florida head coach
Gregg Troy on his team’s performance at the 2012 Division I Swimming and Diving
Championships in Federal Way, Wash. “I don’t think we could have done better
than fifth or sixth, but we raced pretty well.”

“There were a couple of spots that we were just a little rocky.
Even though this season is over we still have a couple of things we still need
to clean up,” Troy remarked. “Overall though, it was a good season.”

Sophomore Marcin Cieslak (Warsaw, Poland) made both his
third championship final and top-three finish of the 2012 Division I Swimming
and Diving Championships on the final night of swimming when he overcame a
deficit in the pool and touched in a personal-best 1:41.36 to take home his
second bronze-plated trophy in as many days. Although it is a new career-low
swim for the 2012 SEC Swimmer of the Year, it still pins him second in the UF
history books behind record holder, Shaune Fraser at 1:40.75.

“My goal is to get faster every time I go to race is to get
faster,” explained Cieslak. “At SECs I went a little bit faster than before,
and tonight I went even faster – it feels really good.”

Until he was halfway through the race, which he has claimed is
his favorite event; Cieslak maintained a comfortable sixth-place position. It
wasn’t until his turn into the final 50 yards the he gained the momentum he
needed to push ahead and go from sixth to third. With his final 50-yard split
timed at 25.94, Cieslak maintained the third-place spot and nabbed the 11th
All-America honor of his two-year career in the Orange and Blue.

“Marcin swam extremely well for us this over the past three
days,” explained Troy. “He stepped up in every race that he swam and gave us
the best performance that he could. He’s just an extremely versatile swimmer.
He goes to the blocks and races tough every time”

Teammate, Cameron Martin (Clearwater, Fla.) represented
Florida in the consolation finals of the 200 fly with a 1:44.11 performance for
11th overall and an Honorable Mention All-America honor in the race
in back-to-back years.

Also swimming down for the Gators was sophomore Brad deBorde (Longwood,
Fla.), in a stacked 100 free consolation final, who pushed into the pad at
43.62 to finish 15th in the event. The top two spots in the consol
final were taken in a head-to-head race with Texas’ Daxon Hill and Ohio State’s
Jason Schnur, but the remaining spots were all with in half a body lengths
behind the pair, neck-and-neck with one another, as the 11th through
16th-place swimmers all touched within six-hundredths of a second.

The 400 freestyle relay quartet of deBorde, Matt Norton (Port
Orange, Fla.), James Turner (Ft. Pierce, Fla.) and Matt Curby (Oviedo,
Fla.) combined to touch the wall in 2:54.34. deBorde sparked the Gators in his
opening leg with a 43.44 split to put the Gators in second after the opening
100-yard split. Norton maintained that speed, but the competition wasn’t enough
as Michigan, Louisville, Iowa and Michigan pulled ahead in the final stretch to
out-touch Florida.

Although none of them compiled points for Florida, three Gators
took to the water in the mile, including a team-best performance by sophomore Connor
Signorin (East Windsor, N.J.). While it wasn’t his best swim, Signorin
continued to gain momentum with each split to eventually gain a lead halfway
through his respective heat that he wouldn’t give-up in the remaining 550
yards. In the final 100 yards of the grueling race, Signorin catapulted three
body lengths ahead to take the top time of his heat.

Originally in ninth before the final 1,650 heat, the swimmers
kicked-off the night with speedy times, including the two fastest times in
American history from Chad La Tourette of Stanford (14:24.35) and Martin
Grodzki of Georgia (14:24.08). With those eight quick performances, Signorin
jumped from ninth to seventeenth overall in the race to fall shy of an
Honorable Mention All-America honor in the event.

The Gator sophomore was joined by freshmen Nicholas Caldwell (Sarasota,
Fla.) and Carlos Omana (Miami, Fla.) who touched in 15:15.02 and
15:28.76, respectively, for the 18th and 21st finish in
the 1,650 free competition.

Diver Mike Lewark (Davie, Fla.) concluded his NCAA
Championship debut off the platform with a 274.10 performance for 24th
overall.

“I’m really proud of how Mike came in and performed this week,”
remarked Florida head diving coach Donnie Craine. “It was a big deal for
him to make it here and get the opportunity to perform for us. Hopefully he’ll
continue to improve and we’ll see him here again next year.”

With the last night of NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving
Championships completed, the Gator men have finished their 2011-12 season with
a top-10 national finish, to mark the 12th consecutive year that
Troy has brought home a top-10 finish for the Orange and Blue. While the season
is over, many of the Gators will continue to train and swim with the upcoming
2012 Olympic Games in London, England.

For all the latest information on Florida men’s
swimming and diving, please log on towww.GatorZone.com/swimmingdiving/menor, for up-to-the-minute information on everything
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